UK parliamentary report calls for more oversight of intelligence agencies

An aerial image of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. (Image from www.defenceimagery.mod.uk)

The Snowden files have revealed the “embarrassing” state of legal oversight into the British intelligence services, MPs have said. As a result, they have called for a major overhaul to make government bodies accountable for their actions.

A Home Affairs Committee report published Friday sharply criticizes
the current system of oversight into and legal accountability of
the UK’s intelligence gathering agencies. The report says the
lack of oversight reflects badly on the agencies’ accountability
and on parliament itself.

“We do not believe the current system of oversight is
effective,” the committee’s report says. “The scrutiny
of the work of the security and intelligence agencies should be
not the exclusive preserve of the Intelligence and Security
Committee.”

While the committee accepts the need to limit access to documents
of a classified nature, it insists it should be granted powers to
take oral evidence from the heads of the security services,
including MI5, MI6 and the UK version of the NSA, GCHQ.

In addition, MPs told British newspaper the Guardian that
classified files released by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden
had shed light on the “embarrassing” oversight
procedures still in place.

“The agencies are at the cutting edge of sophistication and
are owed an equally refined system of democratic scrutiny,”
committee chairman Keith Vaz said. “It is an embarrassing
indictment of our system that some in the media felt compelled to
publish leaked information to ensure that matters were heard in
parliament."

He went on to say that the current system of oversight was
developed in a pre-internet era, and as such was now outmoded and
obsolete.

The Home Affairs Committee report cites the role of The
Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) as of particular
concern, because it is the only body that has oversight over
intelligence agencies in the UK. MPs say they want to change the
way that people are elected to be part of the ISC and end its
monopoly on oversight.

Furthermore, the report calls for an end to the secrecy
surrounding the Investigatory Powers Tribunal - the only
organization that can investigate individual complaints about UK
intelligence agencies.

“It ought to command public confidence in its actions. For
there to be public confidence there must first be public
understanding of the work of the Tribunal,” said the report,
urging that the organization be obliged to publish a detailed
annual report on its activities.

This is the first time that members of parliament in the UK have
admitted that the classified data released by Edward Snowden
could lead to much-needed reform in intelligence practices. Back
in October, MI5 Director General Andrew Parker condemned the
Snowden leaks and their publication in the British press as a
“gift for terrorists.”

The government also sought to stem the spread of the leaks and
conducted a raid on the offices of The Guardian in London last
year to destroy hard drives with classified data from Edward
Snowden.